Bumptop

With this story on Bumptop from TR, I only need one more alternative interface story to get the alternative interface trifecta for the week.

I remember a while back Apple was supposed to be working on something very similar to this using the concept of Piles as well. Piles seem to have emerged from Apple as Stacks in Aperture, an interesting idea that I’m sure can apply or be applied to the rest of the OS. Bumptop looks similar but what I think it really interesting is that all these interfaces are trying to do either one of two things, take us back to the physical desktop in some manner – the whole digital as analogue things is really quite interesting – or these interfaces (like the Minority Report version earlier in the week) want to completely change the paradigm of how we use the machine. Regardless of which of the two paradigms wins out, we will certainly need powerful search tools like Spotlight or Google Desktop Search to find anything in the increasingly information rich world that we live in. Additionally, I think that it might not even have to be an either/or choice as the technologies that power these interfaces can likely coexist so the user can choose one or the other.

Maybe we’ll get something like this in 10.6… Are you listening Apple?